Model Portfolio Shoot: Eugenie
Eugenie is a Russian model currently signed to a French modeling agency. She’s kickin’ around the US for the summer, and we got in contact with each other to do a shoot. I was honored and flattered that she and her manager drove down from San Francisco to shoot with me. So we made the most of the day, and shot for about ten hours! It was grueling and a lot of fun, and I managed not to run out of battery power the entire time. We hit both a wild-west location and an urban location…
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My ‘light test’ image on light-test.com
I just an image accepted on light-test.com. If you’re not familiar with the site, it’s a place where photographers submit amusing or unusual lighting test shots. These are the shots that are taken before the actual photography, to make sure the lighting is right. So go check it out!
10 Business Lessons Learned From the Lemonade Stand
Last Saturday, my six year old son Nick became an entrepreneur.
He wanted to set up a lemonade stand. My wife, who has happily professed not to have a single entrepreneurial bone in her body, insisted that I tackle this project with him. Working with him on this project reminded me of some very grown-up problems people have with running their own business, and I thought I’d share them here.
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Elinchrom Ranger Quadra: Solves All But ONE Problem
Yikes. Just saw this video on Scott Kelby’s site for the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra strobe system. It solves every single one of my location-lighting problems…except one.
The strobe heads are incredibly small and light. The battery pack is incredibly small and light. The power output is incredibly large (for the size) and puts out a lot of…light. This is the perfect walk-around-and-shoot set up.
With one exception: purchasing this system would make my wallet incredibly small and light. $2200 street price for two heads and the battery pack. Sheesh. Or 30 years of waiting to get these at a reasonable price on ebay.
But hey, there’s always the rental option.
One Year of Blogging!
I’ve just realized I’ve been blogging for one year now. Happy anniversary to me! Woot, woot.
Family Reunion
Over the July 4th weekend, I created portraits at a family reunion.. Thirty four people total! And while it was a typical southern California sunny morning, there were definitely obstacles to overcome. How do you light thirty four people for a photograph?
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Please Vote For Me!
Hey everyone, I need your help please!
The VC Reporter (a Ventura County weekly newspaper) is now conducting its annual readers poll survey. Readers can vote for their favorite Ventura County businesses, artists, etc. I would appreciate if you would vote for me as “best photographer.” You don’t have to vote for anything else if you don’t want to…but “best photographer” is on page 10, and you need to complete page 11 for the survey results to be registered. The survey asks for an email address at the end for verification, but there doesn’t appear to be any verification done (hint hint, if you’re worried about receiving spam).
You don’t have to live in Ventura County to vote!
Thanks in advance! Survey ends on July 31st, so please act quickly.
The link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=27cBf5k4NQ4_2be5IVzgdlSQ_3d_3d
- Matt
Camping (With Lighting Equipment!)
We went camping a few weeks ago at Lake Casitas. I had mentioned that I was going to the photo editor of a local magazine, and she asked if I could take some camping photos for possible use later on. So I brought along some lighting equipment as I had some ideas. No big guns on this trip, just some speedlights and such. Read on for more images, and technical details.
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Tutorial: 2 Minutes to Perfect Face Contrast
I can honestly say I invented this. Now I’m not saying there hasn’t been anyone else doing the same thing, but unlike some of my other tutorials where I’ve simply clarified or amplified what others have taught me, this I worked out on my own. As a result, the process has gone through a few iterations before I felt like it was working just right for me. So now I’m ready to share it with you! At the end you are quite welcome to ask – even in the comments section, if you’d like – “I don’t get it, what’s the big whup?”
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